The Seven Elements
The seven elements are the starting steps on the journey to an Eco Award. Each one must considered and put into practice to some degree to gain an Eco Award. Find out about them below.
Eco-Committee
This is absolutely essential to the success of Eco Schools in your school. The Eco-Committee is a group of people who are responsible for discussing issues, drawing up plans, making things happen and communicating with the rest of the school. The most important people on the Eco-committee are the pupils! There can also be school staff, parent helpers, community members, local police and other organisations.
There is no one setup that works for every school. There are as many different types of Eco–Committees as there are schools. Your eco committee must be suited to the needs of your school. Some committees consist of pupils who have volunteered to be involved, in others pupils are nominated. Some committees have pupils from each class or year group involved whilst others are all from the same class. Small schools may not have enough pupils for a separate Eco-Committee but include the duties of the Eco-Committee into their pupil council. Think about your school and do whatever works for you.
Environmental Review
Once the Eco-Committee has been assembled, the next stage is the Environmental Review. This review basically consists of investigating what state your whole school is in. It should examine some or all of the eight Eco-topics in order to reveal what areas need attention in your school. You may think you know already what needs attention in your school but the Environmental Review helps to prove this and may draw your attention to other areas that are particularly good or that need some attention. The Eco Schools Scotland Handbook does provide a template of an Environmental Review, which gives you a good idea of how yours may look click here to download this. Again though, the review is concerned with the needs of your school and the template can be adapted to suit your situation. The emphasis of the review is on learning about your school environment. The review can be conducted by the Eco-Committee but why not get the whole school involved? Each class could examine a different aspect of the review and then you could all get together to discuss it or produce a report about each area.
Eco-Code
The Eco-Code is your chance to communicate to others your vision for the impact of Eco Schools on your school. This could be in the form of a statement, a poem or even a song. It could be fairly short and precise or it could grow as your work with Eco Schools develops. Your Eco-Code should express your commitment to change, what you are changing and what you hope to change towards. The Eco-Code should be updated every year to keep up to date with the changes in your school. For an example of an Eco-Code in this region click here.
Action plan
The Action Plan can only be tackled once the Environmental Review has been completed. From the Environmental Review you will learn what areas in your school need attention. The Action Plan is vital and should consist of a number of achievable actions. Each action should have a time-scale attached to it and a clear idea of who is responsible for it. Some schools divide action plans into those that can be tackled in the short term, medium term and those which are long-term goals. It may help you to consider the following questions when making you Action Plans:
What is the problem and what action(s) can be taken to improve the situation?
Who will the action involve?
How much will the action cost?
Where will the money come from?
How long will the action take to organise, actually do and tidy up from?
How regularly must it be done?
How does it link to the curriculum?
Involving the whole school and the wider community
Eco Schools love enthusiastic pupils who can really get their teeth into the programme. But Eco Schools doesn’t stop there, we need everybody else to get involved too. Eco Schools is after all about the whole school and that means letting everyone know what is going on and encouraging them to get involved where possible. It also means thinking creatively and involving parents and others in the community with Eco Schools projects. This may include writing to local businesses to ask for a donation towards a specific Eco project or inviting members of the community along to a school open day or to help with a school grounds project. It may even involve putting a notice in your local newspaper when you get an Eco-Award to celebrate, writing an article for the school newsletter or displaying your Eco-Code on a public notice board. Can you think of anything else?
Linking to the curriculum
Eco Schools and the things Eco Schools teaches about are totally relevant to your education at school. Each Eco-Topic is related to the things you learn in class in ways you my never have noticed. For example, composting not only reduces the waste leaving your school and provides healthy soil for plants to grow in, it also teaches us a range of interesting things about science. We can learn about the jobs done by the minibeasts which digest the waste or for you older pupils, the process of aerobic respiration can be investigated and much more. Teachers will be familiar with the Scottish curriculum, 3 – 18 and cross-curricular issues such as citizenship, personal and social education, health and sustainable development education, all of which are well integrated with the Eco Schools programme.
Monitoring action and evaluating progress